About this mod

An OBSE plugin that adds support for gender variant head models and textures for NPCs. And allows free camera movement in the race/sex menu. And enables pain-free inventory idle overriding. And per-NPC/Race/scripted body/head texture/model overriding. And animation overriding. And equipment model overriding.

Donation Points system

Straight donations accepted

Blockhead is an OBSE plugin in its late forties that has had enough of the Oblivion engine’s limitations. Born in a robber button and brought up by a Dachshund named Colin, it learnt the harsh facts of reality early. Only to laugh at its face, tweak its nose and drop ice cubes down its vestments.

Over the course of its unnecessarily long and insipid life, it has achieved a great many things, such as:

The compulsory serving of asparagus at breakfast.

Unrestricted camera movement in the race edit menu.

The ability to override the inventory menu’s idle animations.

The induction of the word ‘contrafibularities’ in the Oxford English dictionary.

The ability to override head and body assets of NPCs on a per-NPC/per-Race basis.

The ability to override animations of NPCs on a per-NPC/per-Race basis.

Tidyman’s carpets.

Fine Print

The camera in the race/sex menu can be controlled with the directional keys (arrow keys and WSAD) and the mouse (while holding down the Shift key). It can be reset to its original position by clicking on the left mouse button and dragging. Movement and rotation speeds can be configured in the plugin’s INI file.

Inventory idle animation overriding allows custom idle animations to be applied on the inventory menu’s 3D player model without resorting to replacing existing assets. There are 8 available overrides, from which one is automatically selected by the engine depending upon the player character’s equipped weapon. The override values in the INI file should be set to the filename+extension of a valid KF file placed inside the MeshesCharacters_Male directory.

Body: Applied by placing assets in the following folder: <TexturesMeshes>CharactersBodyAssetOverridesPerRace<MF> (where MF corresponds to the gender of the NPC).Asset naming convention: XXX_<BodyPartName>.<ext>, where XXX – Name of the race.

Head: Head part asset overrides work differently. Since all head part related paths are defined, by default, at the Race level, overrides are only used to support gender variance. The override file paths are automatically derived from the originals defined in the Race record.Asset naming convention: <Original PathFilename>_<MF>.<ext>, where M/F – Gender.As with Tier 2, auxiliary files need to be renamed appropriately.

Valid BodyPart Names:

UpperBody

LowerBody

Hand

Foot

Tail

Valid HeadPart Names:

Head

EarsMale

EarsFemale

Mouth

TeethLower

TeethUpper

Tongue

EyesLeft (Model override only)

EyesRight (Model override only)

Order of precedence: Tier 1 > Tier 2 > Tier 3 > Default Asset.

Tier 1 overrides do not persist between game sessions and therefore need to be reapplied on loading a save game.

Body/Head parts without a pre-assigned asset can also be overridden, i.e., parts that do not have a valid model/texture path assigned in the editor. Tier 3 overrides for such head parts, however, must be placed in the following directory:<TexturesMeshes>CharactersHeadAssetOverridesPerRace<MF> (where MF corresponds to the gender of the NPC)…with the following naming convention: XXX_<HeadPartName>.<ext>

In addition to the aforementioned head parts, Blockhead adds limited overriding support for the following:

Hair – Hair assets can be assigned gender-specific files by adding a ‘-M’ or ‘-F’ suffix to their filenames.

Age Overlays – Age textures can be overridden on a per-NPC basis through script commands or custom assets placed in the following folder: TexturesCharactersAgeTextureOverrides<ModFileName.ext>. File naming convention: 00XXXXXX_YY.dds, where XXXXXX – FormID of the NPC (without the mod index), and YY – Age. Script overrides supersede the latter, do not persist b’ween game sessions.

NPC animations can be overridden on a per-NPC/per-Race basis too. Animation overrides are implemented as special animations internally. All animation files need to be placed in the following directory: MeshesCharacters_MaleSpecialAnims.

Per-NPC – Override files must use the following naming convention: <Filename>_BLKD_PERNPC_XXX_00YYYYYY.kf, where XXX – Name of the mod file name + extension, YYYYYY – FormID of the NPC record, without the mod index.

Per-Race – Override files must use the following naming convention: <Filename>_BLKD_PERRACE_XXX_Y.kf, where XXX – Name of the race, Y – Gender (M/F).

The first part of the filename must follow the same naming convention as the vanilla game’s, e.g., BowIdle_PERRACE_Nord_M.

An NPC can be affected by more than one override at the same time – The engine has the final say on which animation file gets used (the actual mechanics of the picking logic is yet to be discovered/understood).

Equipment override - Refer to the readMe.

The plugin’s INI file is generated after first run (in the same folder as the DLL file) and contains options to toggle its features.

It is recommended that Blockhead be used in tandem with the NPC Tex Tweak plugin, which offers users more avenues to customize NPC textures.

Compatibility

This plugin is compatible with every other OBSE plugin there is. Should you find a discrepancy, please report it through the contact avenues as stated below.

Animation overrides will not work on NPCs that use non-standard file paths for their skeletons, i.e., skeleton meshes must be placed in the MeshesCharacters_Male directory. Special animations added using OBSE’s ToggleSpecialAnim script command may be superseded by Blockhead’s overrides occasionally. Overrides for some animation groups (such as Cast) may not work consistently.

Credits

Special thanks to :

Ian Patterson, Stephen Abel and Paul Connelly (The OBSE Team) – For keeping up the Oblivion Modding spirit and providing the modding community with TES4 Oblivion's Elixir of Immortality

LHammonds – For his Readme generator

nuska - For keeping me occupied on a Sunday.

scanti – For the NPC Tex Tweak plugin and his pioneering work in the field of engine extension.

The Rest of the Modding Community – For the inspiration I needed to start modding and all the wonderful mods which I use.Bethesda – For providing a rather malleable game.